Tesla ranks almost dead-last on Consumer Reports reliability list

[Demovictory9]

The electric car manufacturer now ranks 27th out of 28 car brands on Consumer Reports’ list, above only Ford-owned legacy luxury brand Lincoln. Much of it has to do with the overall instability of electric vehicles in general — especially SUVs — which Consumer Reports’ Jake Fisher said during a presentation are the “absolute bottom in terms of reliability,” according to Reuters.

But considering that, at one point, the Tesla Model S excelled so much in Consumer Reports’ own analyses that the organization itself said it was “breaking the Consumer Reports Ratings system” due to its excellence, the low rank is tough criticism for Tesla and its legions of enthusiasts.

Among the concerns Consumer Reports had for the Tesla Model S, X and Y lines, according to CNBC, were issues with “heat pumps, air conditioning” and notoriously, misaligned panels. It’s also worth noting that Tesla’s Model X ranked dead-last among all cars for reliability, scoring a 5 out of 100.

The issue, Consumer Reports’ Fisher told CNBC, is that the company has the tendency to “add so much tech that is not necessary.” And while this makes for a product that varies wildly from year to year, it is part of the Tesla brand that enthusiasts adore.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Tesla-ranks-almost-dead-last-Consumer-Reports-16632996.php

[Tomconroy]

1. Sticking with the Buick for now.

Last edited Sun Nov 21, 2021, 06:15 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm not crazy about a wealth tax but in Musk's case I'll make an exception.

[GoneOffShore]

2. Keeping my Renault Modus 2009. No money for Musk.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. I have a customer with a Tesla. He loves it.

Says it's the best thing he ever bought.

[ShazzieB]

4. To quote one of my lines from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,

"For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like."

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I just read where a lot of Tesla owners couldn't

start their cars when there was a problem in the tech system.

I wondered what happens if you lose power in a storm and you can't charge the battery.

[tinrobot]

24. The recent issue didn't prevent people from starting their cars.

It simply shut down the phone apps that allowed you to remotely control things in the car. Like heating the car while still in the garage on a cold morning. The cars themselves would start and drive as normal.

If the power goes out in a storm? You'd have a few hundred miles of range to use. That's a week of local driving. An electric car can a least be used as a backup battery for the house. Ford's F-150 EV will do this, and others do it as well.

BTW - during power outages, gas pumps won't work either, because they also run on electricity. So gas cars aren't much better off in that situation.

[Casady1]

5. It is a matter of time

before the big car companies take over. They have the expertise of manufacturing, the distribution network, and the service centers. VW will be a major winner and wait until Toyota comes in.

[EYESORE 9001]

10. I have some experience with the Tesla supply chain

They wrote what I consider to be a parody of a Quality Manual, which is unsustainable in the long run. As demonstrated by this Consumer Reports study, their onerous Quality requirements haven’t done squat toward ensuring a reliable product.

[Casady1]

12. I commented on DU

about this and one guy blasted me. I had heard that their bodies are bad. In this day and age misaligned body panels reminds me of American cars in the seventies when everyone joked about buying a car that was assemble on Friday.

[bluecollar2]

13. It used to be said that the two man made things visible from space

Were the great wall of China and the misalignment of body panels on British cars manufactured in the 70s.

[Casady1]

16. Now that is funny

Those British cars were so poorly made.

[bluecollar2]

41. Sad

A proud heritage went into the trash...

MG, Rover, British Leyland, Bedford, Triumph, Lotus, Aston Martin....

[ProfessorGAC]

47. Famous Industry Story About Jaguar

When Ford bought them, Jags were notorious for mechanical malfunctions.
Quality engineers from Detroit went to England, with the integration team.
In observing the manufacturing process, Ford IEs asked the Jag engineers & design team how much time they spend each day on the assembly floor.
The answer was "None. We don't go onto the factory floor.". The reply was "You will from now on."
The engineers and designers never went onto the floor!
Shortly thereafter, Ford released an ad in an industry journal that was headlined "Finally, A Jaguar That Spends More Time In Your Garage Than In Your Mechanic's".
Ouch!

[dalton99a]

17. All quality improvement must come from the boss

Actual email obtained by CNBC:

[EYESORE 9001]

18. I didn't have Elon Musk in mind when contributing to this project

https://oxebridge.com/downloads/Eyesore90002008.pdf

but I’ve since wondered whether he found it and took the satirical stuff seriously.

[hunter]

14. I figure Tesla will falter, and then it will be embraced, extended, and extinguished...

... by one of the major car companies.

Teslas will be the Saturns of the later 2020s, first embraced as a "different kind of car company."

And then the brand will whittled down to some luxury edition of an ordinary high production electric car that's "not your father's Tesla."

[LastDemocratInSC]

20. A "different kind of car company", i.e., "non-existent".

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. You know Saturn was a subsidiary of GM? Yes?

[hunter]

42. That's why I used it as an example.

It wouldn't surprise me if Tesla ended up that way in a "merger."

[A HERETIC I AM]

43. Except that Tesla has already outlived Saturn by 7 years

[hunter]

45. They haven't been embraced yet.

But what do I know?

When electric cars become a boring commodities Tesla can't compete with maybe Apple will embrace them.

Apple knows how to sell the mystique.

[A HERETIC I AM]

50. I don't think I agree....

They just had a record quarter for shipments, in spite of the chip shortage issues.

I’m seeing more and more of them.

Yes their quality control presently sucks, but there was a time when DU couldn’t say enough good things about this company.

I think they’ll be fine.

But then again, I could be wrong as well, so take that for what it’s worth.

I do know that 4 shares bought 2 years ago @ $200 a piece is now 20 shares worth a total of $22,000 right now.

[hunter]

57. I've never been a Tesla fan.

If someone gave me a Tesla I'd pass it on like a hot potato to someone who cared.

In my imagined utopia of pedestrian friendly cities and excellent public transportation most people wouldn't be bothered to own cars.

In the actual world I live in I tend to prefer $1,000 automobiles I can repair myself.

I bought a new car once when I was young and full of myself but I won't ever do that again.

My children learned how to drive in that car which was older than they were.

[TheBlackAdder]

21. It's a shame VWs are always in the shop or have tech issues, having owned a few and other family.

[MichMan]

30. My last three VW have gone over 200k miles with very few issues

Jetta (230k) drove 11 years and scrapped
Passat (250k) drove 12 years and scrapped
CC (186k) driven 11 years and still going

[TheBlackAdder]

58. I've had GTIs, Jettas, my sister, Jettas, my other sister's husband 2 Golfs. We've given up on them.

.

The only remnant is my sister's 8 year old Jetta, w/ 28K miles, in the shop over a dozen times for non-minor problems.

It must be a VW thing. The two dealers by me let the sales people and mechanics drive customer cars home at the end of the day. They ask if an extended drive is allowed to better inspect the vehicle's operation. What they didn't say was you were giving them permission to drive your car 40 miles to their home and 40 miles back.

If you're at their dealerships at 5PM, it's like a rush to grab the keys of the best cars from the pegboard.

.

[Kablooie]

6. It's true that many Teslas need some warranty covered repairs.

But if the repair does not require a lift they drive out to your house and do the repair in your driveway. You request the repair through the Tesla app.

[MichMan]

9. Doesn't change the fact that it broke down or isn't working correctly

[Kablooie]

26. Most of the problems are from manufacture.

Very few problems crop up later.
So 'reliability' isn't exactly the correct term.

[MichMan]

27. All of which should have been caught before the sale, meaning their QC systems aren't adequate

[Kablooie]

29. Yes. But it's being reported that errors are decreasing.

It may just be the problems a fairly new company has.
Tesla buyers are still early adopters.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. QC Vs. QA

Quality assurance includes designing all processes to ensure that quality construction occurs with no added effort. Quality control requires catching errors, often routine & recurring, to be corrected before the product leaves the factory. That isn't reducing errors, it's just increasing the workload for each defective unit.
It sounds like they're operating off a quality control mindset and not developing quality assured processes.
That, despite the fact that world auto industry started designing for inherent quality for decades. Japan in the 70s, US makers in the 80s. (Of course, the US companies only made the shift after Toyota & Datsun ate their lunch for 10 years.)
Doesn't make me feel welcoming to their products, if they're relying on methods abandoned 40 years ago.

[MichMan]

51. I worked in the quality field for my entire career

While your distinction is completely accurate,IMO, the words are generally interchangeable in discussions with those not involved in the industry.

Whether it was caused by poor QA or QC practices doesn't really matter to the end customer

[ProfessorGAC]

52. Agreed

But, in our industry (chemical manufacturing) they actually are not used interchangeably.
And, I'm sure you have seen things from ISO & ASQ where the distinction is quite stark.
You say it doesn't matter to the end user, and that's mostly true.
But, with quality engineered products, the end user has so few problems, the whole difference is irrelevant.
But, there have been tons of scholarly studies on the distinction and the defect rate of QA processes is dramatically lower than system relying on back end control.

[MichMan]

55. I spent 40 yrs in auto industry quality with suppliers

While QA is critical for establishing robust design and manufacturing processes, vehicle assembly is also a very complicated process by itself.

Not only does it require hundreds of components and sub assemblys produced by outside suppliers, assembly lines themselves require lots of people and a certain level of finesse.

While QA should prevent errors, it cannot eliminate them entirely (or vehicles would cost a lot more than they already do) FMEA still accept that some level of defect can be made by recognizing there are both prevention and detection rankings and actions.

[True Dough]

8. 5 out of 100 in reliability rating!

I'll continue to wait to purchase a Tesla, thank you very much. They've come a long way, no doubt, but there's still lots of room for improvement.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

11. The Tesla is an expensive sled. nt

[dalton99a]

15. All issues will be resolved if you let the vehicle drive itself

[Ron Green]

19. "The overall instability of electric vehicles in general."

What the hell does that even mean? An electric car (I’ve been driving one exclusively for almost 5 years) is the most inherently stable machine there could ever be. Rather than thousands of moving parts it has maybe a dozen.

Maybe the Tesla company hasn’t figured out how to make it reliable, but that’s on asshole Musk, not the electric car itself.

[maxsolomon]

31. It means Consumer Reports is not what you base car choices on

Consumer Reports convinced my dad to buy a Chevette. It favors staid choices.

[Casady1]

33. could have been worse

It could have been a Vega.

[MichMan]

56. True 40 years ago, but they have changed significantly since then

Whether one agrees with them or not, they generally carry a lot of weight with consumers who are looking to make major purchases.

Their annual car buying guides are found in every grocery store in the checkout lanes.

[Casady1]

32. with the exception of the drivetrain

all other parts are subject to normal wear and tear. Brakes, Shocks, Struts, Front end etc. Today's engines are drive trains are very reliable for 200,000 miles. My brother and I have cars with either 300,000( '92 Accord or my '94 Audi S4-253,000 miles. Engine and drive train has never been repaired on either.)

[UnderThisLaw]

38. It means

electric vehicles sold in North America have not done well in CR reliability surveys. It’s not a analysis of which power train is theoretically the most reliable.

[Dial H For Hero]

22. Earlier this year I considered getting a Tesla. I bought a Porsche convertible instead.

No regrets. 😁

[underpants]

23. Don't buy the first model

Isn’t that the old saying. I know they’ve been around for a while but still.

[Poiuyt]

44. I heard to wait two more years before buying an electric car

This from a friend whose daughter has a PhD in physics and studies battery technology.

[tinrobot]

25. Teslas are overpriced for what you get.

It used to be Tesla was the only game in town if you wanted an EV. They could charge high prices and deliver substandard quality.

Not anymore. They're starting to see competition from manufacturers who know how to build reliable vehicles that cost less.

[Mr. Ected]

28. Based on my experience, which is one Model Y for one year

I couldn't be more delighted with my vehicle of choice. For me, its reliability is 100% since the day I drove it home.

Until Detroit comes up with a better alternative for less money, I'm sticking with Tesla.

[leftyladyfrommo]

34. My friends just ordered one. It will be ready in

April. They are so excited.

[moondust]

35. Rating done before hundreds locked out

of their Teslas this weekend.

App outage locks hundreds of Tesla drivers out of cars

Now in last place?

[Calculating]

36. Been loving my model 3, no regrets

...

[moondust]

37. Glad you're happy with it.

I guess I'm old fashioned in that I'm not interested in "owning" a vehicle that I can be locked out of remotely--whether it's Tesla or some other brand.

[Poiuyt]

46. I noticed the article claimed that the Model 3 has average reliability

Apparently, it was the other models that brought down the brand.

[Arazi]

39. Nobody's buying a Tesla for its "reliability" score

[KentuckyWoman]

49. I remember in the 80's near me it was Jaguar

A mechanic told me if you want to always drive a Jaguar you better own two because at least one of them will be in the shop at any given time.

Admitted, I don't know much about Tesla other than they make EV and their dealerships around here are in the exact locations the Jag dealerships used to be.

[MichMan]

54. Perhaps not with enthusiasts

As EV become more mainstream, customers won't nearly be so forgiving and many of them pay a lot of attention to JD Powers and other rating systems.

You can fault the traditional legacy auto manufacturers for lots of things, but they are generally very skilled at producing reliable vehicles in very high volumes

[ForgedCrank]

53. I looked up the actual report and

I put little faith it it or anything Consumer Reports. they are the original Angies List, and that isn't a a compliment.
The report is based off of a poll of their subscribers, not real data, and I see more than a few examples in that list that are completely bogus.
Besides, I think Tesla started something that pushed other manufacturers to compete, but overall I do not like them as a car or a company.

[Ron Green]

59. Oh, this is Consumer Reports? LOL!

I remember when they were reviewing bicycles. The highest-ranked were those with the fewest sharp edges.

[Stinky The Clown]

60. About the the same ranking I would give Elon on the good guy list . . . . . .t

Just a notch or two about Zuck